Today it's easily forgotten that most New Yorkers hated the Twin Towers, for
being so obviously out of proportion. The only serious attempt to reconcile the
public with their daunting presence in the city's skyline was undertaken in the
early morning of August 7, 1974 by a French high-wire artist named Philippe
Petit who, after six years of clandestine planning with a small crew of close
friends, managed to gain access to both rooftops and secretly install a steel
cable, on which he crossed the void between the towers a total of eight times
before surrendering to the Police. Crowds of spectators gathered in the streets
of Downtown Manhattan, and even the authorities expressed their appreciation:
The District Attorney dropped all charges of disorderly conduct and criminal
trespass in exchange for a free performance in Central Park, and the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey issued the artist with a lifetime pass to
the towers' observation deck. The ending, in case you don't already see it
coming: While his friends are expelled from the United States, Petit himself
becomes an instant celebrity, experiences a "magnificent explosion of pleasure"
at the hands of a groupie, and his girlfriend, who had watched him walk the
wire from 400 meters below, would not see him again for a rather long time.